In spite of the intense frenzy throughout the world over this show, especially now, as the saga is coming to its spectacular close, I have never actually sat down to watch an episode of “Game of Thrones”. I understand that statement puts me in a microcosmic minority, but I’ve never been one to jump on a bandwagon that seems destined to cause me great distress.
I’m aware of the hype, most of my family watches it, and I have seen snippets and heard deathly sounds coming from the television screen when my husband watches it, but mass killing and erotic incest have just never been themes high on my list of must-see-shows. Even my grand kids (ages 10, 6 and 4) who obviously aren’t allowed to watch it, know the names and plot lines of all the characters, thanks to my son and their dad, a prolific storyteller. While most kids can’t wait to reach drinking age, I’m sure these munchkins can hardly wait for the day when they can watch GOT in all its barbaric technicolor.
I peek when the music quiets and it seems like there’s interesting conversation taking place, but retreat to my woman cave once the dragon breathing, clanging swords and what I know are severed head thumps begin. I admit I’ve never been a huge action adventure fan anyway, but this series just seems too violent in so many ways, in spite of what I imagine is a very telling and complex family tree. I can only imagine the results if any of those people spit into a cup and sent the sample off to Ancestry DNA, but my TV fantasies tend to run more towards the girl next door marrying the Prince of Moldavia or some other made up country a la the Hallmark Channel.
I was at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this weekend, and Chelsea Clinton was there being interviewed about her just released children’s book, “Don’t Let Them Disappear”, which highlights the need to be more aware and active when it comes to the endangered species list. Surprisingly, dragons were not one of the species chosen for the book (I know, that’s because they’re extinct) but the last question the brilliant LA Times interviewer Mary McNamara asked Chelsea was who her pick would be for the successor to the “Iron Throne”.
Honestly, since politics really hadn’t been discussed at all yet, and because we’re talking about a Clinton person here, and because I had missed at least a few hours of the daily news cycle, I thought maybe that was some moronic new term our current president had come up with to describe the chair in the Oval Office, and that the question Mary was asking was in reference to which Democratic candidate Chelsea thought would be the next President. Everyone else in the audience laughed and knew exactly what she was talking about but it took a minute for me to figure out what the hell the question meant. Turns out Chelsea and her husband are huge GOT fans, and her answer was that there was no way to accurately predict who would reign, but she hoped it would be one of the younger clan women moving to the forefront of she-power in the dragon world.
Thankfully the hubs was watching last night’s premiere episode with his headphones on, but everyone on all the talk shows was talking about it this morning when I turned the TV on and made my coffee. I was reminded once again that I’m obviously missing out on the phenomenon of the century, but I’ll leave it up to all you obsessed fans to fill me in on the gory details when the time comes and the kingdom goes out in a dragonesque, fire-breathing blaze of glory.
To Muse or Not To Muse 